The present invention relates generally to alkylated aminopropylated alkylenediamine compounds, curing agent and amine-epoxy compositions derived from such compounds, and articles produced from such compounds and/or compositions.
The uses of epoxy resins which are cured, hardened, and/or crosslinked with amine-based curing agents are well known. These amine-epoxy materials are widely used in applications ranging from coatings, adhesives, and composites, to construction products for concrete, cementitious or ceramic substrates, often referred to as civil engineering applications such as formulations for concrete flooring.
When epoxy resins are cured with most pure non aromatic amine, the miscibility of these amines with the epoxy resins is not always good and some ripening time might be necessary before a clear mixture can be obtained.
In the case of a clear coat a ripening time may be applied to achieve a coating with high gloss and clarity. Ripening time or incubation time or induction time is defined as the time between mixing epoxy resin with amine and applying the product onto the target substrate. It could also be defined as the time required for the mix to become clear.
In order to overcome these problems the amines have been adducted with monoglycidyl ethers particularly the phenyl glycidyl ether or the o-cresyl glycidyl ether. These reactions are very advantageous to lower the vapor pressure and improve the miscibility of the amine to the resin, unfortunately this adduction tends to increase the viscosity to a very high level which can hinder the application of the product. This type of adduction might also require the removal of the free amine. Should the adduction be carried out far enough to remove all free amine the viscosity would become much too high and in some cases the product would even be solid. This type of adduction is also limited as each molecule used per molecule amine will remove a reactive site, which can diminish the cross-linking density of the systems particularly with amines having only four or less reactive sites.
There are numerous amine-based curing agent and amine-epoxy compositions that are employed in the amine-epoxy coating industry; however, none of these known products completely addresses the needs or solves the problems noted above. Accordingly, it is to this end that the present invention is directed.